SECRETARY'S REPORT. 49 



expi'ess their acceptance thereof, with the annexed conditions, 

 prior to July 2, 1864. 



By the provisions of this act an amount of public lands is offered 

 to Maine equal to 30,000 acres for each of its members of Congress, 

 according to the last apportionment. As we have five Representa- 

 tives and two Senators, this would give 210,000 acres as our por- 

 tion. 



It is also provided that ten per cent, accruing from the sale of 

 these public lands, may be expended for lands, or building sites, or 

 experimental farms, whenever authorized by the Legislature, and 

 that the remainder " shall be invested in stocks of the United 

 States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not 

 less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks; and 

 that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the 

 capital of which shall remain forever undiminished, and the interest 

 of which shall be inviolably appropriated, by each State which may 

 take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support 

 and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object 

 shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, 

 and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning 

 as are related to agriculture and"the mechanic arts, in such manner 

 as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in 

 order to promote the liberal and practical education of the indus- 

 trial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." 



The course of study is exceedingly liberal. While those branches 

 of learning intimately connected with agriculture and industrial 

 arts, with military tactics are expressly enjoined, other scientific 

 and classical studies are not excluded. Thus it may be an institu- 

 tion where an education, both special and comprehensive, can be 

 obtained. It combines the theoretical and practical, the intellectual 

 and physical. " It furnishes the means of a positive increase of 

 human knowledge in the departments bearing on agriculture and 

 manufactures, and the medium of teaching, not only farmers, but 

 those who shall become teachers and improvers of the art of farm- 

 ing." Here all the sons of Maine may seek that preparatory disci- 

 pline required to fit them for all the diversified occupations of life. 

 Here, by the military drill, and by labor on the farm, they may 

 attain that physical strength and development so essential to vig- 

 orous health, energy and success in any pursuit. 



This provision for physical education is one of the most impor- 

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